Should you’re studying this, chances are high you already know the gist of the Barbers Hill / Darryl George tragedy. I name it a tragedy as a result of for grown-a “people” in positions of authority and energy to demonize a Black youth for being culturally open sufficient to rock his pure doo is unconscionable and, dare I say, felony.
Backstory
Should you’re new to this, here’s a fast abstract: Greg Poole, the white superintendent of a darn close to lily-white faculty district (Barbers Hill) felt the necessity to “caucasticly” police Black hair, particularly the hair of George, an 18-year-old junior at Barbers Hill Excessive Faculty in Mont Belvieu, Texas, simply exterior of Houston.
It must also be identified that George’s suspension was issued after Texas handed the CROWN Act in September 2023, making it unlawful for colleges, companies, and so on. to discriminate towards folks for his or her pure coiffure.
However that didn’t cease Poole from making an instance out of George for… properly, it’s actually onerous to discover a logical motive for Poole’s punitive actions.
After being suspended for a “failure to conform” and despatched to another faculty (from Oct. 12 to Nov. 29), George returned to Barbers Hill unapologetic about carrying his hair the way in which it grew out of his head – in its pure however well-coiffered state – no hair beneath the imaginary line of sin (a line cross by numerous Barbers Hill white college students, thoughts you). Nonetheless, George was instantly suspended once more – this time for 13 days. Once more, for a “failure to conform.”
In December, George’s household filed a proper grievance with the Texas Training Company, in addition to a federal civil rights lawsuit towards Gov. Greg Abbott, Legal professional Common Ken Paxton, and the college district for violating the state’s CROWN ACT. In different phrases, George and household contend the actual injustice right here is Poole and firm’s “failure to conform” with state regulation.
Assault Advert
But, as an alternative of conforming to state regulation, Poole went full Caucus Mountains, defending the college district’s place to repeatedly droop George by taking out a full-page advert within the Houston Chronicle, which needed to price him a fairly penny.
Not solely that, Poole made what could be the whitest assertion in 50 years (which is saying one thing), when he stated, “Being an American requires conformity.”
Actually, playa?
What American necessities are you studying from?
America Based on Non-Conformity
This nation was actually based on non-conformity. The colonists refused to evolve to “taxation with out illustration” and non secular restrictions (fairy story model) or Britain’s wishes to get out of the slavery recreation (a extra correct learn of historical past). They selected battle with their mom nation somewhat than conform to a world with out the stolen labor and mental/expertise genius of enslaved botanists, mathematicians, engineers, philosophers, warriors, and so on. from Africa.
Poole could have used the phrase “conformity,” however he and his ilk have all the time meant “submission.”
“Conformity” means everybody in society goes to conform to a set of agreed upon requirements. In different phrases, there are guidelines we’re all going to observe; practices we’re all going to have interaction in; requirements we’re all going to stick to.
However the historical past of this nation has been whites paternalistically setting requirements for everybody however themselves. They demand that we “conform” whereas they go off doing regardless of the hell they need.
Trifecta of Non-Conformity
Democracy was cool with Poole’s “Individuals” when the bulk stated slavery was authorized and segregation was God’s will. However as quickly as “we the folks” began voting for a extra pluralistic society, rejecting “Make America White Once more” initiatives… oh, then democracy was the issue. Democracy wanted to be thrown out with Black folks’s Election 2020 votes. Whiteworld stated to hell with democracy. They refuse to evolve to their very own structure, their very own type of authorities by the folks, for the folks.
Similar with Christianity. So long as white evangelicals might outline what Christianity was or wasn’t, whites conformed and anticipated everybody else to, as properly. As they preached “Slave, be obedient to your grasp” on the plantation, or preached “Segregation now, segregation without end” throughout the 60s, or preached of the godly virtues of the KKK and different white home terrorists from the late 1800s to at this time, or preached that Jesus was some other-worldly, apolitical flower little one who seen protests towards the state as the best sin, white Christians conformed to the religion, and anticipated us to do the identical.
However as Christianity breaks free from its Eurocentric colonization, and folks of all races start recognizing the liberating messages and deal with caring for the poor and opening our doorways and hearts to the immigrants, now white Christians are actually revolting towards their very own religion. They’ve began an entire anti-“Pink Letter” Christianity, rejecting the phrases and directives of Jesus, that are, in lots of variations of the Bible, written in crimson.
White pastors are complaining that their white congregants are revolting towards Jesus’s precise phrases and directives, saying they refuse to adjust to all that love your neighbor as your self jive. They refuse to evolve to a Messiah that requires believers to take care of the sick and free the oppressed. They need a white nationalist NRA Jesus who shoots first and asks questions later. So, once more, they refuse to evolve.
The identical is true within the realm of “regulation and order.” They like it when “regulation and order” over-polices and over-incarcerates Blackfolk. However the second the regulation holds them accountable, they’re the loudest ones screaming “defund the police.”
They Need Submission
Whether or not Poole consciously knew it or not, when he demanded conformity from Darryl George, he was actually calling for “submission,” “the act of accepting or yielding to the need or authority of a superior power.” Submission to whiteness.
Poole took out a full-page advert in a significant media publication to scream a message that has been battering Black folks since we’ve been on this Babylon – Resistance is futile; undergo the “supremacy” of white definitions, guidelines, legal guidelines, and so on. Whether or not whitefolk observe these guidelines or not is immaterial.
Resistance is Our Center Title
Fortunately, George is surrounded by a help system that has his again and is prepared to combat for his proper to honor who he’s culturally and spiritually, and thereby, additionally to honor his/our ancestors. By not conforming to edicts that wreak of the parable of white supremacy, George is displaying far more maturity than that infantile transfer by a grown-A bully who used a full-page advert to unfold his Cromagnon message of paternalistic, god-complex hate.
Furthermore, George is displaying one thing that has been a part of our Pan-African story because the first colonizers sought to enslave us – the spirit of resistance, the spirit of non-compliance with evil, the spirit of non-conformity to edicts meant to place us in anywhere that isn’t a spot of honor and dignity and energy.
We might do properly to exhibit simply an oz. of what George and household are bringing to the desk. If we’re going to evolve to something, let it’s the divine energy current in us that calls for we let our divine gentle shine for all of the world to see – in nonetheless we rock our hair!
